house and speaker were getting close to getting a big deal that would have included tax reform and deficit reduction. that fell apart. house speaker john boehner tried to get his own bill through the house. he realized he didn't have enough votes for that. that fell apart as well. the ball is in the senate's court. according to an aide, senate majority leader harry read will not bring a bill to the floor unless he believes he will not have the support to get it passed or at least not to block it. that is the strategy right now. president obama will be working with what ma jority leader reid trying to get something through. the president wanted a big deal given the time constraints and only six days left, he conceded to a big deal is probably not possible. the goal now is just to get a gap measure to prevent the steep tax hikes from kicking into effect and the deep spending cuts. right now that is the large goal. i can tell you that competence in lawmakers is dwindling according to the latest poll. 50% of americans believe that lawmakers will be able to prevent going-over the fiscal cliff.